Ask the Blog Team: How Do I Deal With People Who Seem to Look At Me With Pity Now?
Welcome to our Q+A series, Ask the Blog Team. In this series, the Hope Mommies blog team joins together to answer questions that are commonly asked in grief. If there is a question or topic that you have wrestled with in your grief that you would like the opportunity to see how other Hope Moms have processed or answered, we would love to hear from you. You can submit your questions here.
Oh, we all know that face of pity when someone first found out you were no longer pregnant and also did not bring the baby home. Honestly, I don't let it distress me. It's a ...
Jessica’s Story
A little before we made the decision to start trying for baby number three, my older sister and her husband found out that their son, Jaxson, had a hereditary genetic disorder that was complicated. It would require a bone marrow transplant along with additional, life long, support of various kinds. Of course this was difficult news for our entire family to digest, but I didn’t worry about the effects that it could have on my family—until a conversation that I had with someone close to the situation. I was excited to share that we were going to start trying for ...
Heavenly Perspective
We cast all of our expectations onto heaven when this life is loss, and we can cast more there too. Through faithfulness testify of true hope in Christ during sorrow—this is heavenly purpose—it is as if we somehow heap more worthy weight onto our future glory. From this life, we will take with us into the next all that has been for Him. And it all matters. That is why Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory ...
Discussions in Grief: Praise
Grieving involves new emotions and considerations often too many to numbers. When you find yourself in overwhelming grief, you likely feel buried and lost. In this series, we slowly and compassionately look at one aspect of grief at a time from a biblical perspective for the newly grieving mother. Click {here} to read past posts in this series.
Imagine yourself in a pit. You are struggling to see and breathe, you are terribly lonely, and it looks as if there is no way out. This is a picture of what grief feels like to most. I often picture myself covered in the ...
In the Word: The Light of Heaven
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. It is our desire that this series will aid you in getting in the Bible for yourself and discovering the joy that comes from hearing from God through the pages of His Word.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17The truth of a future glory does not bring your baby back to you, but it will bring you to your baby. Is the view of heaven not greatly expanded when contrasted with the darkness of baby loss?Your child’s story, ...
The Shore
Grief is so unpredictable. It’s like standing in the ocean, but facing the shore. I’m not admiring the beautiful coastline as one would imagine. I am standing soaking wet—water dripping into my eyes, fists clenched, body shaking and tense. A permanent grimace is on my face. My knee and elbow are cut open and a pink mixture of water and blood dissipate into the ocean surrounding me.
I am standing there waiting.I am waiting for the next impact, the next wave to hit. In anticipation, I do my best to ground my feet by digging them deeper into the sand below me. I ...
Erica’s Retreat Experience
I didn’t find out about the retreat until close to the end of registration. But I felt the want, no, the need to go. Before the retreat I was feeling very alone. It was like I was the only one in the world grieving a baby I never got to hold, a life I never got to meet face to face. I felt like I was going crazy and everyone was just watching, waiting for my breakdown. I felt like I shouldn’t be crying this much, sad this often, dwelling on my losses so deeply. Everyone else was over it, so why wasn’t I?I got to the retreat Friday evening feeling literally sick ...
Renewing Your Focus
New Year’s resolutions have a bad reputation. Often, our goal is to make this life as easy as possible, not regarding the Lord’s greater plan and trustworthiness, and elevating our own desires above His authority. We often find ourselves living with this temporary, humanistic view of time—we are impatient, frustrated in trials, lacking in perseverance, not living with eternity in mind, worrying, not trusting God for provision, or living in fear.
Grief has tempted me to live this way. In missing my baby, I ache so fiercely that, sometimes, I ...
Hope Mommies Retreat: A Place of Healing and Hope
I do not know where my words are [physically] finding you—curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, or up at 3:00am with tear stained cheeks. I do not know where my words are [emotionally] finding you—angry at the hand dealt you and withdrawing from all of your old daily rhythms, or desperately seeking and choosing joy as you rebuild your new normal. I do not know if my words find you tugging at the robe of King Jesus, begging Him to make sense of it all, or if you are running as far and fast away from the gospel as your weary legs can take you.What I do know, ...
Discussions in Grief: Surrender
Grieving involves new emotions and considerations often too many to numbers. When you find yourself in overwhelming grief, you likely feel buried and lost. In this series, we slowly and compassionately look at one aspect of grief at a time from a biblical perspective for the newly grieving mother. Click {here} to read past posts in this series.
I don't know what comes to mind for you when you think of the word “surrender”, but for me I picture the end of a long battle and the losing side has nothing left. Surrender happens when they give up and hand ...
